St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-10-29


BROOKLYN, October 23-The Rev. r.
De Witt Talmage, D. D., preached in the
Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning on the
subject, forgiveness Before Sun
down" After explaining some passages
concerning Hezekiah, DR.. Talmage gave
out the following hymn, which was sung
by the congregation:
This glorious hope revives
Our courage by the way,
While each in expectation live
And longs to see the day.
Professor Henry Eyre Browne rem
dered on the organ an aria with varia-
tions, by Cramer The text of the sermon
was from Ephesians iv, 26: Let not the
sun 60 down upon your wrath" DR..
Talmage said:
What a pillow embroidered Of all
colors hath the dying day! The cradle
of clouds from which the sun rises is
beautiful enough, but it is surpassed by
the many colored mausoleum in which at
evening it is buried. Sunset among the
mountains! 1t almost takes ones breath
away to recall the scene. The long
shadows stretching over the plain make
the glory of the departing light, on the
tiptop crags and struck aslant through
the foliage, the more transpicuous. SAT-
from and gold, purple and crimson
commingled. All the castles of cloud in
confiagration. Burning Moscows on the
sky. Hanging gardens of roses at their
deepest blush. Banners of vapor, red as
if from carnage in the battle of the ele-
ments. The hunter among the Adj
rondacks, and the Swiss villager
among the Alps know what is
sunset among the mountains. After
storm at sea the rolling grandeur into
which the sun goes down to battle at
nightfall is something to make weird
and splendid dreams out for a lifetime
Alexander Smith in his poem compares
the sunset to 1.-The barren beach of hell"
but this wonderful spectacle of nature
makes me think of the FURNISHED wall of
Heaven. Paul in prison writing my text
remembers some of the gorgeous sunsets
among the mountains of Asia Minor,
and how he had often seen the towers of
Damacus blaze in the close of the ORR
entail days, and he flashes out that mem
DRY in the text when he says: Let not
the sun go down upon your wrath"
Sublime and all-suggestive duty for
people then and people now. Forgive
ness before shutdown. He who never
feels the throb of indignation is imbecile
He who can walk among the injustices
@f = Ln ga; +,I L. i
others, without flush of cheek, or flash
of eye, or agitation of nature, is either
in sympathy with wrong or semi-idiotic
When Ananias, the high priest, ordered
the constables of the courtroom to smite
Paul in the mouth, Paul fired up and
said: God shall smite thee, thou
whited wall" In the sentence imme-
diately before my text Paul commands
the Ephesians: BE We angry and
sin not" 1t all depends on what
you are mad at and how long the feeling
lasts whether anger is right or wrong
Life is full of aspirations. Saul after
David, Succoth after Gideon, Koran after
Moses, the Pasquins after Augustus, the |
Pharisees after Christ, and every one has |
had his pursuers, and We are swindled,
or belied, or misrepresented, or perse-
cuted, or in some way wronged, and the |
danger is that healthful indignation shall |
become baleful spite, and that our feel |
ings settle down into prolonged out
pouring of temper displeasing to God
and ruinous to ourselves, and hence the |
important injunction of the text Let
not the sun 60 down upon your wrath"
Why that limitation to ones anger?
Why that period of flaming vapor set to
punctuate flaming disposition? What
has the sunset got to do with ones re-
sentful emotions? Was it a haphazard
sentiment written by Paul without
special significance? No, no; l think of
five reasons why we should not let the
sun set before our temper sets.
First: Because twelve hours is long
enough to be cross about any wrong in
ficted upon u.s. Nothing is so exhaust
ing to physical health or mental faculty
as protracted indulgence of ill-humor.
1t racks the nervous system. 1t hurts
the digestion. 1t heats the blood in
brain and heart until the whole BODY is
first over-heated and then depressed.
Beside that, it sours the disposition,
turns one aside from his legitimate
work, expends energies that ought to be
better employed, and does US more harm
than 1t does our antagonist. Paul gives
us good, wide allowance of time for
legitimate denunciation, from six o'clock
to six o'clock, but says: 'Stop therew
Watch the descending orb of day, and
when it reaches the horizon take reef
in your disposition. Unloose your collar
and cool off. Change the subject to some
thing delightfully."- pleasant. Unroll your
tight fist and shake hands with some one
Bank up the fires at the curfew bell
Drive the growing dog of enmity back
to its kennel The hours of this morn
ing will pass by, and the afternoon will
arrive, and the sun will begin to set, and
beg you on its blazing hearth throw all
your feuds, invectives and satires.
Other things being equal, the man who
preserves good temper will come out
ahead. An old essayist says that the
celebrated John Henderson, of Bristol,
England, was at dining party where
political excitement ran high and the
debate got angry, and while Henderson
was speaking, his opponent, unable to
answer his argument, dashed a glass of
wine in his face, when the speaker de-
wiped the liquid from his face
and said: This, sir, is a depression
now, sir, If you please, for the main ar
gument." While worldly philosophy
could help but very few to such equipoise
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